A personal channel of a user is stored in a memory and contains personal channel data that provide information about linear and/or non-linear content items which the user likes or dislikes. For instance, a group of certain television (TV) programs are bundled into a personal channel. Instead of zapping through all available broadcast programs/channels, the user can zap through his personal channels. For instance, a user has set up a personal news channel, a personal cartoon channel and/or a personal movie channel. Due to the fact that the amount of available content items continues to increase, such a personal channel becomes an increasingly important tool to a user, as it offers him the possibility to quickly find a content item of interest.
A personal channel has a specification, for instance in terms of a number of manually added “seed” content items or of a Boolean expression consisting of a number of disjuncts, which can define what content items may be automatically added to the personal channel. A personal channel further has a set of received or (to be) recorded content items that are received/recorded according to the “seed” content items or, respectively, according to the Boolean expression. The user can zap through the received/recorded content items, wherein a recorded item is usually stored on a hard disk operatively connected to the personal channel. In particular, the concept of personal channels allows one or more users of a recorder, e.g. employing hard-disk technology, to independently define to a plurality of channels, which are similar to existing broadcast channels, but which are typically filled with recorded broadcast content, downloaded internet content, or links to downloadable or streamable internet content. Such a personal channel is personalized, not only due to the fact that the user creates his own personal channel, but also by the fact that such a personal channel may be equipped with a recommender. This recommender learns the taste of the user of the channel by user feedback, either explicitly or implicitly, and serves to fine-tune the content of the channel.
Creating a personal channel is, for instance, done by a user by simply choosing a channel/program from the electronic program guide (EPG) and indicating that he wants to create a new personal channel with this program. This initial channel/program serves as a seed, and more, similar channels/programs will be selected and/or recommended for adding to the personal channel. There are thus several possibilities of how a personal channel can grow: The user may add a new content item manually, the user may add a new content item upon recommendation of a recommender system, or a personal channel manager automatically adds a new content item to the personal channel that is similar to content items already existent in the personal channel that is to say: which matches to the manually added content items.
A linear content item is, for instance, a broadcasted TV program or a broadcasted radio program. In contrast to a non-linear content item, a user cannot control the linear content item during broadcasting. However, he may record a linear content item to watch it at a later time. A non-linear content item, for instance a video content, is available from a content item source like a computer-implemented network, such as the internet or a local area network, or from a computer-implemented server. A user can choose, which non-linear content item he wants to see and can control play back of the chosen non-linear content item. Thus, the term non-linear content is used to indicate video content that is not distributed via broadcasting but via other means, usually via internet streaming or download.
A personal channel is specified by personal channel data. For instance, a personal channel data piece can be a Boolean expression as the above named conjunct of disjuncts or metadata according to one or more “seed” content items. Personal channel data can specify a content item type, for instance by specifying a main actor, a title, a genre and/or significant persons and so forth. Usually, personal channel data is present in the form of linked character strings.
As a user may add more and more content items to his personal channel, such a personal channel typically grows over time in terms of manually added content items.